REPORT  OF  A  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 


OF  THE 


ON  THE 


BATTERY  EXTENSION. 


February  9,  1865. 


JOHN  W.  AMERM  AN,  PRINTER, 
No.  47  Cedar  Street. 

1865. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


1 

Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2013 

http://archive.org/details/reportofspecialc00newy_1 


REPORT  OF  A  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 


OF  THE 


dtakwf  <tanutt«rf  the  £  tot*  of  ffiw^wlt, 


ON  THE 


BATTERY  EXTENSION. 


February  9,  1S65. 


JOHN  TV.  AMERMAN,  PRINTER, 
No.  47  Cedar  Street. 

1865. 


CIA". 

•NT 

to 


REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE 


Gjjamkr  of  Comiiurre  of  %  State  of  Ueto-fjark, 

ox 

THE  BATTERY  EXTEK"SIOjST. 


The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Chamber,  by  reso- 
lution of  4th  January,  1865,  to  "  memorialize  the  Legis- 
lature of  this  State,  asking  its  action  towards  the 
u  completion  of  the  Battery  Extension,  and  to  devise  a 
"  plan  by  which  the  piers  and  wharves  of  the  City  shall 
"be  kept  in  order,  and  revenue  yielded  to  the  City 

from  the  rent  of  the  same," 

Respectfully  submit :  That  they  have  given  the  whole 
subject  of  Encroachments  on  the  Harbor,  and  especially 
that  known  as  the  Battery  Extension,  their  careful  con- 
sideration, and  respectfully  recommend  to  the  Cham- 
ber the  adoption  of  the  memorial  herewith  submitted, 
drafted  by  them,  and  recommending  the  passage  of  a 
bill*  now  before  the  Senate  of  the  State,  which  places 
the  control  of  this  alteration  in  the  water  front  in  the 
hands  of  the  Pilot  Commissioners  of  this  city. 


*  This  bill  has  since  passed. 


4 


MEMORIAL 

OF  THH 

CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW-YORK. 


To  the  Eon.  the  Senate  and  House  of  Assembly  of  the 
State  of  New-  York : 

May  it  please  your  Honorable  Bodies  : 

The  Memorial  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
State  of  New- York  respectfully  represents : 

The  present  condition  of  the  alteration  in  the  water 
front  of  the  City  of  New- York,  known  by  the  name  of 
the  "Battery  Extension;"  the  injury  which  is  daily 
caused  by  it  in  its  present  unfinished  state,  and  the  im- 
portance of  its  early  completion,  in  order  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  safety  of  the  harbor. 

The  Battery  Extension  was  contracted  for,  under  the 
authority  of  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  New-York, 
by  a  Mr.  Conkling,  in  the  year  1851.  The  work  was 
undertaken  and  slowly  carried  on.  In  the  year  1853 
the  contract  was  transferred  to  Mr.  George  Law,  since 
which  period  it  has  been  prosecuted  slowly  until  now, 
when  labor  upon  it  is  wholly  suspended. 

The  dangers  with  which  the  safe  navigation  of  the 
harbor  are  threatened,  by  this  protracted  delay  and 
present  stoppage,  may  be  best  shown  by  a  reference  to 
the  several  reports  which  have  been  made  upon  en- 
croachments upon  the  harbor  during  the  last  ten  years. 


5 


In  the  year  1855,  Major  Delafield,  of  the  United 
States  Engineer  Corps,  now  its  distinguished  chief, 
communicated  to  this  Chamber  the  dangers  to  which 
the  continuous  and  increasing  encroachments,  both 
upon  the  East  River  and  the  New- York  side  of  the 
Hudson,  were  exposing  the  harbor  of  the  city,  by  re- 
ducing the  volume  of  the  tide  in  the  Sandy  Hook  chan- 
nel and  causing  alterations  in  the  direction  of  the  cur- 
rents. 

In  the  same  year,  the  Committee  of  Commerce  of 
the  Legislature  of  New- York  and  the  Governor  of  the 
State  considered  the  subject,  and  extended  invitations 
to  the  authorities  of  New-Jersey  to  meet  them  in  the 
City  of  New-York,  and  make  a  personal  examination  of 
the  state  of  the  harbor  and  the  encroachments  upon 
the  same. 

In  conformity  with  this  invitation  of  Governor  Clark, 
Governor  Price,  of  New-Jersey,  a  joint  committee  of 
both  houses  of  the  Legislature,  and  Egbert  L.  Yiele, 
Esq.,  the  State  Engineer,  united  with  the  authorities  of 
the  State  of  New- York  in  an  examination  of  the  en- 
croachments then  existing  and  contemplated  upon  the 
Brooklyn  side  of  the  East  River. 

A  joint  resolution  was  reported  by  this  committee 
to  the  Senate  and  General  Assembly  of  New-Jersey, 
and  by  them  adopted,  inviting  the  attention  of  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  of  New- York  to  the  existing 
abuses,  and  requesting  it  to  "  survey,  lay  out  and  estab- 
lish in  the  rivers  and  harbor  of  New- York  an  exterior 
water  line,  beyond  which  no  erection  should  be  there- 
after made." 

In  response  to  this  call  of  a  neighboring  State,  whose 
commerce,  as  well  as  our  own,  was  suffering  from  these 


6 


infringements  upon  the  common  domain,  and  to  the 
urgent  representations  of  the  commercial  community  of 
New- York  City,  an  act  was  passed  by  the  Legislature 
of  New-York,  on  the  30th  March,  1855,  entitled  "  An 
Act  for  the  appointment  of  a  Commission  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  Harbor  of  New- York  from  Encroach- 
ments and  to  prevent  Obstructions  to  the  necessary 
Navigation  thereof."  These  Commissioners,  known  by 
the  name  of  "The  New-York  Harbor  Commissioners," 
at  once  entered  upon  their  work,  and,  with  the  advice 
of  Gen.  Joseph  G.  Tottex,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  United 
States,  Professor  A.  Dallas  Bache  and  Commander 
Chas.  H.  Davis,  now  Admiral  U.  S.  N.,  decided  upon  an 
exterior  line,  and  reported  the  same  to  the  Legislature 
the  8 th  January,  1856,  and  5th  March,  of  the  same  year. 

These  reports  were  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Commerce  and  Navigation  of  the  Senate,  which  body, 
after  conference  with  the  committee  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  City  of  New-York  on  wharves,  piers  and  slips, 
reported  to  the  Senate,  17th  March,  1856,  with  a  bill 
defining  an  exterior  line.  This  bill  was  adopted  and 
passed  into  a  law  April  1,  1856,  under  the  title  of  u  An 
act  for  the  payment  of  expenses  under  the  act  for  the 
preservation  of  the  harbor  of  New- York  from  encroach- 
ments, passed  March  30th,  1855,  and  to  limit  the  ex- 
penses and  duration  of  the  Commission  created  by  said 
act."  The  sum  of  $50,000  was  appropriated,  and  the 
time  in  which  the  exterior  line  should  be  established 
fixed  for  the  2d  Tuesday  in  January,  1857. 

On  the  27th  January,  1857,  the  Harbor  Commission- 
ers informed  the  Legislature  that,  contrary  to  the  acts 
virtually  forbidding  the  filling  up  of  the  waters  of  the 


7 


port  beyond  Water  and  South  streets,  the  Corporation 
of  the  city  had  authorized  or  permitted  the  deposit 
of  earth  in  the  Hudson  River,  between  the  termination 
of  Dey  and  Yesey  streets,  from  about  435  feet  in  depth 
and  480  feet  in  width  west  of  West-street ;  and  on  the 
East  River,  between  Thirteenth  and  Eighteenth  streets, 
the  riparian  owners  had  filled  in  beyond  the  cession  of 
the  400  feet  to  the  city,  and  beyond  the  exterior  line 
established  by  the  Legislature. 

The  State  claimed  to  own  a  large  portion  of  the  area 
thus  occupied,  and  a  conflict  of  jurisdiction  ensued  be- 
tween it  and  the  city  authorities.  This  is  what  is  known 
as  the  West  Washington  Market  Case,  and  has  for  a 
long  time  occupied  public  attention. 

On  the  24th  April,  1858,  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Land  Office  of  the  State  leased  to  James  B.  Taylor  and 
Owen  W.  Brbnnan  the  right  of  the  State  to  this  prop- 
erty for  a  consideration,  taking  from  them  a  bond  of 
indemnity,  to  save  the  State  from  costs  in  any  action 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  right  under  the  lease.  This 
lease  was  renewed  on  the  17th  April,  1860. 

In  this  case,  therefore,  the  State  maintained  its  right 
of  sovereignty,  and  the  same  right  over  the  waters  and 
harbor  was  again  successfully  sustained  by  a  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  February  17,  1862,  Wm.  F.  Allen, 
Judge,  in  a  suit  brought  in  the  name  of  the  People,  at 
the  instance  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Pilots, 
to  restrain  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  from  erecting  a  pier 
at  the  north  end  of  the  Battery,  and  outside  of  the  pier 
line  established  in  the  act  of  1857.  There  would  seem, 
therefore,  to  be  no  reason  to  question  the  power  of  the 
Legislature  to  grant  the  relief  hereinafter  prayed  for  in 
the  matter  of  the  Battery  Extension. 


8 

In  the  year  1859,  the  attention  of  the  commercial 
community  was  seriously  drawn  to  the  growing  dan- 
gers and  the  importance  of  watchful  care  to  preserve 
the  harbor,  by  an  alarming  report  that  u  vessels  had 
struck  upon  the  shoal  of  the  Battery,  where  there  was 
supposed  to  be  an  ample  depth  of  water." 

Mr.  George  W.  Blunt,  then  Pilot  Commissioner  and 
a  member  of  this  Chamber,  immediately  called  the  at- 
tention of  Professor  Bache,  Superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  to  the  subject.  Lieut.  Craven,  U.  S.  N.,  then 
attached  to  this  service — the  same  gallant  officer  who 
lost  his  life  while  commanding  the  iron-clad  Tecumseh, 
in  the  attack  on  the  forts  of  Mobile — was  detailed  to 
re-survey  the  shoal,  and  communicated  his  report  on 
the  27th  September,  1859,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce. 

A  committee  of  the  Chamber  examined  into  the  sub- 
ject of  the  encroachments  and  the  remedies  for  them  in 
November,  1859,  and  urged  immediate  application  to 
the  Corporation  to  take  measures  to  complete  the  Bat- 
tery Extension  without  delay. 

Lieut.  Craven,  in  his  report  of  survey,  stated  "that 
"the  accumulation  on  the  shoal,  off  the  point  of  the 
"  island,  has  evidently  been  aided  to  a  startling  degree 
"  by  the  extension  of  the  Battery."  And  again,  uthat 
"  the  Battery  Extension  has  already  accomplished  that 
"  which  would  have  required  a  half  century  of  the 
"  operations  of  nature,  having  pusLud  the  shoal  out 
"  as  the  shore  line  was  changed."  But  he  further  states, 
uthat  it  is  probable,  when  the  slowly  progressing  en- 
largement is  completed  and  the  walls  finished,  the 
"  changes  will  be  less  rapid;"  and  "  that  the  injury  is 
"  now  without  other  remedy  than  that  of  hastening 


# 


9 


"  to  its  completion  a  work  which  has  proved  so  seri- 
"  ously  disastrous  to  this  already  crowded  part  of  the 
"  harbor,  and,  by  legislation,  preventing  any  extensions 
u  beyond  the  lines  of  the  city  as  defined  by  the  Har- 
"  bor  Commissioners." 

But,  notwithstanding  the  statements  of  these  eminent 
scientific  authorities  and  the  earnest  and  repeated  re- 
monstrances of  the  Chamber,  as  well  as  of  numbers  of 
our  commercial  men,  the  work  was  not  hastened,  and, 
at  the  present  time,  no  progress  whatever  is  being 
made  towards  its  completion. 

A  reason  for  the  delay  of  the  holder  of  the  contract 
to  pursue  this  work  may,  perhaps,  be  found  in  the  fact, 
that  he  has  for  many  years  had  the  use  of  a  valuable 
wharf,  the  franchise  of  which  is  worth  $5,000  and  up- 
wards, annually  to  the  city,  free  of  charge. 

This  wharf,  which  he  was  permitted  by  the  corpora- 
tion to  use  for  the  landing  of  stone  necessary  to  the 
work,  he  has  applied  to  ferry  purposes,  to  his  great 
personal  advantage. 

Begun  in  an  utter  disregard  of  the  true  interests  of 
the  city,  which  may,  perhaps,  seek  the  shelter  of  ignor- 
ance, this  work  has  been  pursued  with  a  tardiness  more 
criminal  than  the  original  inception.  If  the  city  is  to 
receive  damage  from  this  enterprise,  and  it  be  shown 
that  this  damage  will  be  infinitely  increased  by  delay, 
it  would  seem  that  so  much,  at  least,  would  be  yielded 
to  the  demand  of  public  interest  and  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion.  So  far  from  this,  the  work  is  now 
wholly  suspended. 

The  interposition  of  your  Honorable  Bodies  is  now 
invoked  to  remedy  the  evil,  which,  after  repeated  solici- 
tation, the  Corporation  of  the  city  has  failed  to  amend. 


10 


Of  the  correctness  of  the  judgment  of  the  scientific 
men  whose  views  have  been  stated,  there  can  be  no 
question.  It  only  needs  to  ask  the  opinion  of  any  New- 
York  merchant,  pilot  or  sailor  of  the  now  passing  gen- 
eration, and  to  compare  the  harbor  as  it  was  previous 
to  1815,  when  at  every  wharf  water  was  at  all  seasons 
abundant,  and  sailing  vessels  starting  from  them  beat 
out  to  sea  unaided  by  the  now  inevitable  steam-tug,  with 
the  present  intricate  and  dangerous  navigation,  when 
even  steamers,  with  their  power  and  independence,  often 
hang  off  the  point  of  the  Battery  for  a  half-hour,  wait- 
ing an  opportunity  to  pass  from  one  river  to  the  other. 

Nor,  may  it  please  your  Honorable  Bodies,  is  this  a 
subject  merely  municipal,  and  affecting  the  interests  of 
this  metropolis  only ;  not  so  ;  the  City  of  Albany  propor- 
tionately, to  her  commerce,  suffers  more  than  the  City  of 
New- York,  and  the  limitation  of  the  harbor  which  in- 
jures the  one  will,  ere  long,  wholly  ruin  the  other,  un- 
less checked.  The  diminution  of  the  volume  of  tide 
water  which  flows  through  the  gates  of  the  ocean,  and 
the  consequent  diminished  force  and  extent  of  the  back- 
set above  Newburgh,  have,  year  by  year,  caused  a 
descent  of  the  bar  at  Albany,  until  now  it  is  miles  be- 
low the  ancient  limit,  and  ere  long  will  leave  that  city 
without  river  navigation,  except  for  the  most  insignifi- 
cant and  light  draught  vessels.  And  in  this  the  Cham- 
ber is  not  unmindful  of  its  own  indebtedness  to  the 
State.  Re-chartered  in  1781  as  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  the  State  of  New- York,  and  favored  since  in 
special  and  peculiar  legislation  by  the  people  of  the 
State,  it  recognises  its  duty  to  regard  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  State  at  large  ;  and  it  would  be  false  to 
its  history  and  to  its  traditions  were  it  to  permit  any 


11 


consideration  for  a  simply  municipal  interest,  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  its  duty  to  the  State  and  to  the  Nation, 
of  which  that  State  is  part. 

During  the  past  year  the  Chamber  took  effective  action 
to  prevent  legislation  in  New-Jersey  injurious  to  the 
harbor  ;  and  on  the  4th  May,  1864,  a  committee  re- 
ported that,  at  their  instance,  a  commission  had  been 
appointed  by  the  Legislature  of  that  State  to  report 
upon  an  exterior  line  for  the  whole  of  the  New -Jersey 
shore  bordering  on  the  Hudson,  and  a  bill  had  been 
passed,  similar  to  that  adopted  by  this  State,  for  the  due 
regulation  of  the  harbor. 

There  seems,  therefore,  to  be  little  more  needed  to 
preserve  to  ourselves  and  to  future  generations  the  un- 
paralleled and  priceless  advantages  of  our  noble  harbor, 
than  to  force  to  a  conclusion  the  work  known  as  the 
Battery  Extension,  and  to  this  your  consideration  is 
respectfully  and  earnestly  invited. 

Your  memorialists  further  respectfully  submit,  that 
there  is  now  before  the  Honorable  the  Senate  a  bill, 
entitled  "  An  Act  to  prevent  encroachments  in  the 
Harbor  of  New- York,  and  to  provide  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  extension  of  the  Battery." 

This  bill  places  the  control  of  this  work,  in  certain 
contingencies,  in  the  hands  of  the  Pilot  Commissioners 
of  this  city.  These  gentlemen  have  already  examined 
this  subject,  and  their  map,  showing  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  alteration,  is  hereunto  annexed.  And  it 
may  be  here  stated,  that  recently  one  of  their  number 
has  visited  Washington,  and  arrived  at  an  understanding 
with  the  authorities,  that  the  Government  will  co- 
operate in  the  improvement  for  public  purposes  of  ad- 
vantage and  convenience  to  the  commerce  of  the  city. 

With  regard  to  the  character  of  this  improvement, 


12 


it  is  proper  to  say  that  it  is  proposed  to  transfer  the 
present  Barge  Office  to  the  Battery,  where  a  handsome 
building,  similar  in  character  to  that  of  the  Union  Ferry 
Company,  will  be  erected  by  the  Government  for  rev- 
enue purposes,  and  a  large  basin  will  be  made,  which 
will  furnish  accommodation  to  the  numerous  barges 
and  small  boats  for  a  landing.  These  improvements 
will  supply  a  great  want  of  this  community,  and,  in 
the  form  proposed,  be  also  a  great  ornament  to  the 
city.  It  is  not  believed  that  any  first-class  city  in  the 
world  is  so  ill  provided  with  this  kind  of  accommo- 
dations. 

This  bill  is  in  all  respects  satisfactory  to  this  Cham- 
ber and  to  our  merchants  generally,  and,  if  passed  into  a 
law,  will  prove  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the  city ; 
wherefore  your  memorialists  commend  it  to  your  early 
and  favorable  consideration,  and,  as  in  duty  bound, 
they  will  ever  pray,  &c. 

In  submitting  the  above  memorial  for  the  approval 
of  the  Chamber,  the  Committee  respectfully  state  that 
they  will  present  a  further  memorial,  on  the  subject  of 
a  plan  "  by  which  the  piers  and  wharves  of  the  city 
"  shall  be  kept  in  order,  and  revenue  yielded  to  the 
"  city  from  the  rent  of  the  same,"  as  called  for  by  the 
resolution  of  the  Chamber. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

John  Austin  Stevens,  Jr. 
George  W.  Blunt, 
Fred'k  A.  Conkling, 
Charles  H.  Marshall, 
Ezra  Nye. 

New- York,  February  6,  1865. 


13 


APPENDIX. 


LETTER  FROM  PROFESSOR  B ACHE. 
to  the  president  of  the  new-york  chamber  of  commerce. 

Lane's  Brook, 
Washington  Co.,  Maine,  Sept.  27,  1859. 

Dear  Sir: 

The  report  that  one  or  more  vessels  had  struck  upon  the  shoal  off 
the  Battery,  where  it  was  generally  supposed  there  was  deep  water, 
induced  one  of  the  Pilot  Commissioners,  George  W.  Blunt,  Esq., 
to  call  my  attention  to  the  desirableness  of  a  re-survey  of  the  shoal. 
It  was  assigned  to  Lieut.-Commanding  T.  A.  Craven,  TJ.  S.  N.,  the 
assistant  in  the  Coast  Survey,  who,  having  been  charged  with  the  hy- 
drography of  the  New- York  harbor  for  the  Commissioners  on  Harbor 
Encroachments,  was  familiar  with  every  part  of  the  shoal.  His  re- 
port, recently  presented  to  me,  gives  in  detail  the  changes  which 
have  occurred,  and  shows  prospectively  those  which  may  be  expected. 
It  is  important,  and  I  therefore  beg  leave,  through  you,  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  to  it.  The  filling  between 
Pier  No.  1  and  the  Castle  may  readily  be  amended  by  dredging,  and 
no  doubt  the  entire  completion  of  the  Battery  work  would  retard  the 
now  rapid  increase  of  the  shoal.  The  shoal  must,  however,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  be  related  to  the  present  shore  line,  as  the  old  was  to  the 
former  shore ;  and  thus  the  shoal,  changed  somewhat  in  form,  must  be 
pushed  out  to  a  distance  not  equal  but  corresponding  to  the  addition 
of  the  shore  line  of  the  Battery. 

Yours  respectfully, 

A.  D.  Bache, 
Superintendent  U.  S.  Coast  Survey. 

To  Pelatiah  Perit,  Esq., 

Preset  Chamber  of  Commerce. 


14 


REPORT  OF  LIEUT.  CRAVEN. 

New-York,  Sept.  20th,  1859. 

Sir: 

In  compliance  with  your  directions  in  July  last,  I  made  an  exami- 
nation of  the  shoal  off  the  Battery,  New-York,  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  what  changes  had  taken  place  in  that  locality,  and  I 
herewith  submit  to  you  a  map  of  the  Survey,  scale  1-5000,  on  which 
I  have  also  had  the  soundings  placed,  from  the  Surveys  of  1855  and 
1856,  for  comparison. 

The  soundings  of  '55  and  '56  are  underlined,  and  the  curves  are 
also  distinctly  drawn. 

In  order  to  make  this  discussion  as  explicit  as  possible,  I  divide 
the  shoal  into  sections,  and  call  your  attention  to  each  portion  sepa- 
rately ;  you  will  be  much  interested  in  observing  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  shoal  is  accumulating,  and  with  what  regularity  the  de- 
posits are  being  made. 

Sec.  I.  From  Pier  No.  1  North  River,  to  Castle  Garden.  In  the 
angle  formed  by  the  line  of  the  Battery  and  the  Pier,  there  has  been  a 
very  rapid  filling  up  ;  the  three-fathom  curve  has  been  pushed  outward 
eighty  yards  beyond  the  line  of  1856  ;  the  17  feet  spot  in  the  outer 
part  of  this  section  is  extending  towards  Pier  No.  1,  and  there  is  an 
average  decrease  of  three  feet  in  depth  throughout  this  section. 

Sec.  II.  extends  to  the  three-fathom  curve  of  1856.  In  this  portion 
of  the  shoal  the  change  has  been  not  less  considerable  than  in  the 
angle  of  Pier  No.  1.  The  three-fathom  curve  was,  in  1856,  about 
seventy-five  yards  south  of  the  Castle ;  it  will  be  seen  that  it  has  ex- 
tended toward  the  Castle  wharf,  and  embraces  a  considerable  area, 
where  formerly  we  had  five  fathoms;  outside  of  this  curve,  we  find 
in  this  section  a  general  decrease  of  five  feet  in  the  depth. 

Sec.  III.  embraces  the  general  shoal  to  the  southeastern  portion  of 
the  curve  of  three  fathoms.  Excepting  in  the  part  already  indicated, 
there  has  been  no  material  change  in  the  general  contour  of  the  shoal, 
but  in  following  the  curve  to  the  southernmost  point,  it  will  be  seen 
that  it  has  extended  about  one  hundred  feet  to  the  southward. 

Sec.  IV.  extends  from  last  Section  to  East  River  Piers.  In  calling 
your  attention  to  this  section,  I  will  merely  refer  to  the  knoll  lying 
about  AY.  S.  W.  from  Pier  No.  1,  East  River.    This  knoll  has  eighteen 


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feet  water  upon  it,  is  very  small,  arid  has  deep  water  outside  and  close 
to  it;  there  is  no  change  in  depth  on  the  knoll,  but  it  is  extending 
itself  towards  the  north,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  in  that  direction 
there  is  a  decrease  of  two  feet  in  the  depth  near  the  shoal. 

East  of  this  knoll  there  is  no  apparent  change.  Drawing  a  waved 
line  from  the  last-mentioned  knoll  to  Castle  Garden,  you  mark  out 
the  eddy  waters  of  this  part  of  the  river ;  the  current  of  the  two  rivers 
meeting  here  at  ebb  and  dividing  at  flood ;  this  portion  of  the  stream 
being  too  sluggish  to  carry  off  matters  held  in  suspension,  they  are 
rapidly  and  constantly  deposited. 

Although  from  natural  causes  there  must  always  have  been  a  shoal 
off  this  point  of  the  island,  its  accumulation  has  evidently  been  aided 
to  a  startling  degree  by  the  extension  of  the  Battery.  The  currents 
which  formerly  flowed  between  Castle  Garden  and  the  shore,  made 
the  greater  portion  of  their  deposit  so  near  the  shores  as  to  cause  no 
great  injury  to  the  operations  of  commerce;  and  the  process  of  de- 
posit was  so  gradual  that  it  would  have  required  an  interval  of  many 
years  ere  the  shoal  would  have  seriously  encroached  on  the  waters  of 
the  Bay;  but  the  Battery  Extension  has  already  accomplished  that 
which  would  have  required  a  half  century  of  the  operations  of  nature > 
having  pushed  the  shoal  out  as  the  shore  line  was  changed. 

In  illustration  of  this  assertion,  we  have  but  to  look  at  the  extraor- 
dinary heaping  up  of  the  earth  in  the  angle  formed  by  the  Battery 
wall  and  Pier  No.  1,  a  heaping  up  made  by  the  ebb  current  of  the 
North  River,  which,  as  it  comes  around  the  pier,  is  now  turned  back 
and  forward  into  eddies  by  the  Battery  walls.  This  current  formerly 
ran  through  the  space  now  covered  by  the  filling  in,  and  poured  the 
suspended  matter  into  the  East  River,  off  Whitehall,  from  whence  it 
was  carried  away  and  distributed  in  the  deep  waters  of  the  Bay. 
But  now  a  large  portion  of  the  sediment  brought  down  by  the  ebb  is 
doubtless  rilling  in  the  spaee  here  with  great  rapidity  ;  its  effects  are 
still  more  strongly  visible  in  the  section  off  the  Castle  where  we  see 
changes  of  six  and  eight  feet  m  the  space  of  three  yards.  This 
is  due  to  the  united  efforts  of  the  ebbs  from  the  two  rivers ;  and  the 
time  cannot  be  far  distant  when — unless  dredging  is  resorted  to — the 
entire  space  from  the  Castle  to  the  head  of  Pier  No.  1  will  be  quite 
filled  in. 

In  addition  to  the  material  damage  done  by  thus  forcing  out  into 
the  stream  a  shoal  which  was  heretofore  of  little  consequence,  it  may 


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safely  be  presumed  that,  in  rilling  in  for  the  Battery  Extension,  very 
liberal  supplies  have  been  contributed  to  the  shoals  from  the  dirt 
carts,  as  without  the  security  of  a  regular  sea  wall,  immense  quanti- 
ties of  the  loose  earth  must,  from  time  to  time,  be  washed  away  and 
added  to  the  shoal ;  and  it  is  probable  that  when  the  slowly  progress- 
ing enlargement  is  completed  and  the  walls  finished,  the  changes  will 
be  less  rapid.  The  injury  is  now  without  other  remedy  than  that  of 
hastening  to  its  completion  a  work  which  has  proved  so  seriously  dis- 
astrous to  this  already  crowded  part  of  the  harbor,  and,  by  legislation, 
preventing  any  extensions  beyond  the  lines  of  the  city  as  defined  by 
the  Harbor  Commissioners. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  ob'd't  servant, 

T.  Augs.  Craven, 
Lieut  t-  Comm  anding. 

Prof.  A.  D.  Bache, 

Sup^t  U.  S.  Coast  Survey. 


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